


Sleep to Dream

by Smapdi



Category: The Mindy Project
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-09
Updated: 2014-07-09
Packaged: 2018-02-08 02:50:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1923939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smapdi/pseuds/Smapdi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Mindy watches Danny while he sleeps, and one time she doesn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleep to Dream

Mindy is humming along to the music she's playing on her iPod as she walks into the lounge and spots the sleeping figure in her spot on the couch. Danny has his arms wrapped around his chest tightly and his knees bent, but not enough to leave her room to sit, so she plops into the nearest chair. 

Danny is holding the remote tightly in one fist tucked in his armpit, and Mindy briefly considers trying to tug it free, but she doesn't want to wake him. From what she's seen in the lounge, he's a light sleeper and rather cranky when startled, like a hibernating bear, only scarier. So she listens to her music and tries not to sing along. 

It's really boring. 

Danny grunts and rolls on his side, and Mindy waits in anticipation to see if he's going to wake up and give her the remote, or better still, fall on the floor so she can laugh at him. He doesn't do either thing, instead just resuming his slumber. 

"Seriously, Danny?" She sighs under her breath. The remote is hanging halfway out of his hand tantalizingly. She knows it's almost a sure thing that he will wake if she grabs it, and he definitely will if she turns on the tv, but there isn't a magazine left unread and her phone battery is at 8% and she is bored. It's a risk she's willing to take. 

But she has wants to be stealthy, like a ninja, and in her mind it will be a Mission Impossible level of awesomeness, as she sees herself crouching silently and moving effortlessly across the floor to snatch the remote like a million dollar gemstone. To this end, she begins by sliding off the chair, but instead of becoming a fluidly moving jungle cat stalking it's prey, she lands hard on one knee and nearly topples over. 

Not the best start, what with having to squelch her impulse to shout expletives. 

Mindy tries to crab walk to Danny's side but it just gives her a thigh cramp, so she resorts to the less elegant hands and knees crawl to skitter across the floor. So she isn't Tom Cruise. After all, it isn't the journey, it's the destination, and in a moment she is squatting next to Danny's slumbering form. 

There are only mere inches between her and the booty she seeks. Slowly, so slowly as to not disturb the air, she reaches her hand towards the sleek black rectangle that will fulfill her need for mindless chatter. The View, The Talk, hell, Maury and some dancing not-the-daddies, anything but being alone with her thoughts. 

Just before Mindy reaches her goal, she peeks at Danny. His face is so peaceful and she takes a moment to drink it in. She doesn't often see him like this, so serene - her interactions with this man are often combative, though when she's watched him engrossed in a surgery it's almost like this, just more intense. With his eyes closed, no stress lines on his face, not talking smack about her clothes or shoes or personality, he looks so much younger, softer. Sweet, almost - not an adjective she would normally assign to him. 

Plus, damn, he has such long dense eyelashes, they sweep his cheeks, and those lush lips, just slightly parted - it's a little hypnotizing. She needs to get her focus back. The remote is cool when her fingers touch it and she gets a gentle grip as she slowly eases it from his hand. 

And then his hold tightens. 

She swiftly looks back at his face, but his eyes are still closed, his breathing steady. She tugs a little harder but he has his hand clenched and he makes a little grunting noise. Shit. She shifts slightly, considering the option of prying his hand off, but that will certainly rouse him. Maybe just a pull from another angle... 

It's no use. He has a death grip on the thing. Mindy blows air from her nose in frustration and peeks back at his sleeping face. She's a little suspicious now. Were his lips just slightly curved? She looks back at the remote with intent now and steadies herself by grasping the edge of the coffee table before pulling at it again. 

When she looks back at Danny, his eyes are open. 

A little yelp comes out of her mouth just as he releases his grip and she pulls the remote from his hand, too hard, as it smacks her right in the nose. She falls back and lands on her butt, a solid thump there too, and Danny is laughing his ass off. 

"Ow! That's not funny, Danny! You could have seriously injured me!"

He rolls his eyes and sits up, offering her a hand up, which she refuses, climbing onto the couch on her own. 

"I was asleep, how am I to blame?"

Mindy rubs her sore bottom and sorer nose. "You were not asleep! When did you wake up?"

"About when you crashed onto the floor. You know you don't do anything quietly, right?"

"Ugh. Well at least I can watch my shows now."

Danny stands up and stretches. "That was kinda creepy, the way you were staring at me."

"Shut up. I was making sure you weren't dead."

He grins at her as he walks off. "Uh huh."

\---

It's been a long time since Mindy has slept in a twin bed, and when she wakes in the night with a pressing need to pee, half of her is hanging over the side. Even with fans running, the room is uncomfortably warm and she's feeling too sticky to sleep soundly, but still she doesn't want to get up. It's only when the combination of thirst and bladder pangs are too much to bear that she climbs out. 

Danni was thrilled to use her Lisa Frank emblazoned sleeping bag and is lightly snoring a safe distance away from the bedside, so Mindy doesn't have to worry about tripping and crushing her like that unfortunate armadillo. She still hopes it was playing dead. She just has to worry about staggering through the house and finding the bathroom and she's hopeful she won't run into either male Castellano while she does it, because her hair is matted from sweat and she isn't wearing a bra or makeup. She doesn't know why she cares, but she just does, okay? 

Once Mindy has found her way and relieved herself, it's a more leisurely trip through the funky old ranch house. It has a unique, not entirely unpleasant odor that's reminiscent of must and aftershave and floral car freshener, and she thinks if she's single till she dies she will be very familiar with this particular combination of scents. It's kind of the smell of despair. 

There are knickknacks and tchotchkes everywhere there's a flat surface, with a light layer of dust, so the current Mrs. C must be the only one who takes care of that. In the kitchen Mindy finds a tall, amber colored glass with a mottled texture and checks the fridge for bottled water or a Brita, but finds neither. So she resorts to drinking from the tap, but it's so hot out here that the water never cools, and the warm, metallic flavor makes her gag. 

Fortunately there are ice cubes, in a tray in the freezer, made from the same weird water but at least when it's cold the flavor is dulled enough that she can stomach it. She feels strangely snobbish, and realizes it's rude to pass judgement on folks just because they have wood paneling and Walmart decor. They're happy, probably happier than she is right now, and they're a family. The closest thing she has to family back home in the city is the guy snoozing on the couch, and they've both been treating each other like crap lately. 

So Mindy sits in the lazy-boy recliner that is probably Alan's domain but she doesn't care. She curls up and drinks her ice water, the cubes already half melted, and watches Danny sleep. He doesn't look particularly rested, and he has a crease between his eyes, his mouth slightly down turned. It's probably terribly uncomfortable for him to have had to resort to help from his Dad, and she feels a little guilty that some of it is her fault. She shouldn't have let him go wandering in the desert in the first place. Once she looked at the map on her phone she could see the damn thing was endless, and Danny was as far from being at one with nature as a fish would be in a tree. It's a miracle he didn't break a leg and die, or get eaten by a coyote, or bit by a rattlesnake, or just lose cell signal and wander till he dropped. She feels kind of panicky when she thinks of all the things that could have gone wrong. 

But it was his fault for concocting the ruse to drag her out here in the first place. Of course, she should have just gone with him, instead of running back to beg Cliff to forgive her. Not that she didn't still intend to do just that, but really, one more day shouldn't matter. Danny is her friend, maybe her best friend, and for her to just abandon him when he needed her, well, that was pretty petty. And selfish. And mean. All the cruel things she had hurled at Danny would be just as fitting aimed at herself. 

Mindy sighed and blinked back tears. He was a great guy and a good friend and she would just have to do better by him from now on. She was tempted to wake him and tell him that, but she imagined he would probably just groggily say okay and struggle to get back to sleep. No, she'll tell him tomorrow, tell him he's not a bad guy, not like his dad, but better, stronger. He needs to hear that, really hear it and know it, and she wants to make sure, somehow, that she will be a better person to him. 

But for now, she just sips the warming water and drifts back to sleep in the chair. It will make for an awkward moment when they wake, but she blames it on Danni's snoring, and runs off to get washed up. She hates getting caught looking gross, so she misses entirely the look in his eyes. 

\---

The movie has been over for an hour, and Mindy's arm has gone numb, but she doesn't dare move. Danny is leaning up against her, his head on her shoulder, and it's taken them so long to get back here that she just wants to savor it, even if she possibly has to lose a limb. 

The first few times Danny tried to be friends again were awkward, especially when she had no intention of rekindling that friendship. She was just so hurt when he left that his words were hollow. I need you, I have to have you, so goodbye? In Mindy's world, this made no sense. 

But she missed him terribly. Punishing him was doing nothing more than punishing herself and she relented, slowly letting him reconnect. Part of her hoped maybe once that happened they could reunite, but as she moved through the hurt, she ran into fear and that was tougher for her to work through. 

So maybe this is it for them. They're better as friends. It had stung to see him with Sally, but that fizzled out just as she had predicted, and now he has no one. No one but her. She leans her head against his, turning to smell his hair before stopping herself. No, she can't go down this path again. It doesn't hurt right now, even though the pressure of his body against hers is stirring up a longing she knows she needs to suppress. She wants him, but she can't have him, and that is just the way it had to be. She's long since given up trying to figure out why. 

Danny moves in his sleep, mumbling something unintelligible, so Mindy assumes it's about taxes or Springsteen. Then he moves again, and now there are problems. The way they were kind of snuggling laying beside each other has inadvertently turned into spooning and here she is, the little spoon. His hand is on her thigh and she can feel his warm breath on her neck and it's doing things to her, things that could lead to trouble. 

He's asleep, she's sure of that, but not all of him. That's the other problem. 

It would be so easy for her to give in. Is it really backsliding if they never slid in the first place? Mindy can feel her heart pounding. All she has to do is wake him up, maybe by pressing herself against him just a little harder, or by shifting so she's underneath him more, and then kiss him awake. He wouldn't say no. She knows how badly he wanted her, how hard it was for him to wait. She remembers thinking she never should have played that card, that if only they had just done it on the airplane, or if she'd never have stopped him that first night, then maybe he wouldn't have left. She knows it's stupid, as they aren't high school kids, but she went over the words he said when he broke up with her and over analyzed everything. Maybe if he had known it was too late, that she was already attached... maybe she should have told him. Or maybe that would have just made the humiliation worse. 

She fights her desire now with every fiber of her being. So what would happen if she did wake him, kiss him, fuck him - would they magically have a good relationship this time around? Or would there just be that moment of heat and then more awkwardness, more hurt... Mindy knows in reality it would be the latter, and it would be impossible to come back from it this time. He is so warm and strong against her, and he smells so good, and she loves him, she just loves him so, so much. 

But she loves herself more, maybe for the first time in her life. With a deep sigh she wrenches herself away, and Danny slumps a little before groggily opening his eyes. 

"Hey, sorry to wake you. I'm gonna go... this was fun." Mindy smiles at him without meeting his eyes.

"No, I'm sorry for... uh, for falling asleep." He looks uncomfortable and sleepy and so fucking adorable she immediately regrets her decision, but it's done and it's good. She slips on her shoes and finds her purse, giving him a moment to compose himself before he walks her to the door, and she resists giving him a goodnight kiss on the cheek. Danny waits for her, half smiling, and she lets herself in his other apartment. 

She resolves to call that cop guy tomorrow. 

\---

It's so late at night that it's really early morning, but there's still time for Mindy to catch a few hours of sleep. That is, if the buzz from the coffee she's been mainlining fades in time, but it's better for her to be awake for an emergency c-section than for an office meeting. Her first actual appointment isn't until noon, so unless she gets paged, she should be able to sleep in a little. 

Dawn is starting to seep in through the curtains, and she doesn't want to wake Danny, because he's taking all her morning consults. They've developed a symbiotic relationship in regards to work schedules, so if one gets stuck, the other helps out. Peter and Jeremy have gotten so much material from it, it's appalling. 

"Oh Jeremy, I need a widdle nap. Can you take all my appointments from now until next August?"

"Of course, my pet. Be ready to give me a full body massage when I get home." 

"To completion!"

"Ugh, Peter, don't be crass. Why do you always have to take it there?"

Amazingly, Danny didn't even care. He'd grumble and grimace as was his due, but then he'd wrap his arms around her waist and kiss her neck and tell her to ignore them, that they didn't know what they were missing. She played it up, but when he wasn't around to give her comfort, she'd just tell them to suck it. 

Mindy ducks into the bathroom and takes a quick, warm shower to loosen up her bones, stiff from standing for hours. It always makes her sleepy to crawl into bed after a shower, much to Danny's chagrin, as showers wake him up and make him frisky. As if he needed to be any friskier - they've been together for months but the man is still ready to go morning, noon and night. It's helpful, of course, since their busy schedules don't always allow them the luxury to pick and choose when they get to spend time together. 

"Are you a morning sex or a night sex person, Danny?" She had asked him, early on, as they were tangled in the sheets and drifting to sleep. 

"Any time, as long as I'm with you." 

Mindy had thought he was just being sweet and tactful, but she was wrong. It honestly surprised her that things hadn't yet become stale. In her only other relationship that had lasted this long, they had to resort to all kinds of shenanigans to keep it fun, though she realizes in retrospect that it never really had been from the start. 

Even with the shorter term guys, she felt like she initiated it more than they did, which seemed off to her, what with her need to follow society's stereotypes. Thus, she always felt like she must be lacking something if she wanted it more; she must not be sexy enough to keep them interested. She never once considered maybe it was they who were lacking. 

But Danny never made her feel that way. Quite the opposite in fact, which she relished. He looked at her like she was a goddess come to life. She never worried about being naked around him, and he never lost the look of appreciation when he saw her body, even when she was just changing clothes or hopping in the shower. As a result, she had gotten quite used to sharing the cool tiles with him, as he joined her whenever he could. She figured it he was making sure to catch her before she had the chance to doze, and he kept her awake in the most delicious ways possible. 

But not tonight. She crawls into bed next to him, as quiet as a mouse, and rolls onto her side to face him. He's angled away, the sheet around his waist, one leg hanging out. It's warm in the room and he never turns on the air when she isn't there, instead preferring to open a window just enough to let the equally warm outside air in, along with those lovely street noises and smells. 

Mindy didn't care. Once she was asleep, she didn't notice, and it was just one of those things that years of living alone had ingrained in him. It wasn't worth fighting over. They picked their battles wisely now, neither giving in to pettiness or letting their stubbornness guide them. Mindy could live with the warm nights by sleeping naked or using a bedside fan, and Danny could deal with the scattered clothing on the floor and the amount of shelf space devoted to toiletries that cost what his mother had brought home in a good week when he was a child. 

The morning light paints patterns on Danny's back, and Mindy just gazes at the broad expanse of flesh. She isn't as intimately familiar with the slopes of his shoulder blades and strong musculature of his spine as he is with hers, what with his fondness for all of her curves. 

There was a certain beauty to this side of him, the skin stretched taut over muscles and bones, but she could see it was slightly, temporarily flawed, with fading crescent shapes where she had marked him. There were fresher ones lower down from this morning, she was sure. But he wasn't the only one who wore battle scars - Mindy at times bore finger shaped bruises, or scruff induced rashes, and occasionally the indentations of his teeth on her shoulder, when things got a bit out of hand. She wore them with pride. 

Danny shifts and rolls onto his back, still fast asleep. This view Mindy has committed to memory - the sharp line of his jaw, the baby soft skin of his throat, the tiny moles on his neck. She is tempted to reach for his hand as it lays against his abdomen, just to touch him. Holding his hand was one of her favorite things in the world, besides kissing him, of course. That, she could do for hours, if he'd let her. In the rare instances where they were both free from work and other commitments, and they weren't tired or hungry or sore or just out of sorts, they would spend time just relaxing with nothing but their bodies and quiet music. It was delightful and decadent and she lived for those moments, where they could just luxuriate in the sensations of skin on skin, of taste and touch and the joy of it all. 

But this morning is just for reflection, as sleep begins to overtake her. Her eyes grow heavy and she snuggles a little closer, happy to just feel his presence. 

\---

"Don't forget to put on sunscreen. I know what's gonna happen, you'll think you're fine and then you'll get burned and then you won't let me touch you." Danny leans over and presses the bottle into Mindy's hand and whispers into her ear. "And I plan to do a lot of touching."

Mindy rolls her eyes with a giggle and slathers lotion on liberally. "Do my back then, baby." She demands as she squirts a blob of SPF 30 into his hand. 

Danny grins, smoothing his hands across the exposed skin of her shoulders, dipping them lower to cover her back. When he's done, he lies down on his lounge chair under an umbrella and pulls out a book, while Mindy soaks up the sun. 

"I can't believe we come all the way out here, on our honeymoon yet, and you're just going to lie there in the shade and read..." When no response comes from her husband, she turns and looks at him over her sunglasses. He has already fallen asleep, his book across his chest. 

To be fair, she had run him ragged the past few days, with guided tours and scuba diving and lots of food and lots of drinking and lots and lots of sex. It's fine to take a nap on this sunny afternoon, as long as he is awake for salsa dancing tonight. 

It's funny, she thinks, how peaceful he looks when he sleeps, all the worries in the world forgotten. She would never have imagined the rocky road that led them here, or how she would treasure that journey. Heck, it's amazing enough that they actually managed to get it together enough to get married. Her husband. He's her husband now, he really is, and she is his wife. She has a crazy big rock on her left hand that to this day amazes her. It could be fake, she thinks, and that's okay, because she's never ever going to check, but she knows it's real. Its just big enough, and clear enough, to be ungodly expensive, but not so big as to be obnoxious. His band, in comparison, is simple platinum - he didn't want anything bejeweled, he said he wasn't that Italian. 

She relives the moment as she gazes at his sleeping face. It was just an ordinary day, until it wasn't. They had been getting ready to go to dinner with friends, no special occasion, just an average couple-y thing they did when they could. Mindy was blowing out her hair, wearing nothing but a towel, when Danny came in, as dressy as he could stand to be, in a navy suit with his blue dress shirt open at the top. She turned off the dryer so she could give him a proper kiss and he nearly tugged off her towel. 

"Hey, handsy, we've got time for that later, I've already done my makeup." She batted his hands away as he jokingly pawed at her. "Geez, Danny, if we're together in forty years, are you still gonna be such a horndog? Following me around on your Rascal, trying to grab my ass?"

"What do you mean, if?" Danny furrowed his brow in mock indignation. 

Mindy held up her left hand and waggled her fingers as she left the bathroom and headed to her closet. "There's no ring on this finger."

Danny laid down on the bed and crossed his arms behind his head, watching her as she put on underwear and sifted through dresses. "So what, you want to make it official?" He asked her, sounding a little bored. 

She grimaced and held up a burgundy dress against her body, looking at her reflection. "Man, you really did run the well dry with your one romantic gesture ever, huh?"

"I'm romantic!" He scoffed. "I buy you flowers, I leave the room when I have gas..." 

That elicited a snort from Mindy. "I'm such a lucky lady."

Danny sat up. "So if I asked you to marry me, would I have to do it with a ridiculous scene like you show me on the YouTube? With choreographers and hidden cameras? Or could I just say hey, I love you, will you marry me?"

Mindy undid the zipper on the dress she chose and slipped it off the hanger. "You know, I thought it would matter, but at this point, babe, I'll take what I can get."

She had just gotten the dress on and was mid zip when he said it. 

"Okay then. Hey, I love you. Will you marry me?"

When she turned in slow motion, her mouth gaping, he was holding a Tiffany's box and biting back a grin. 

That was three months ago, and here they were, in the Virgin Islands, husband and wife. They didn't quite run off to Vegas, but what they pulled together on short notice was pretty fucking fabulous. 

Mindy pulls her lounge chair next to his so she can share his shade. No sense risking her flawless skin, and it's comforting to have him at arms length. They spent far too much time apart before. 

\---

"It's your turn. Get up!"

Mindy pokes her sleeping husband and he startles awake. 

"What? I'm up. What."

He hears the noise from the monitor and grunts, throwing his legs over the side of the bed and sitting for a minute, trying to get his bearings before heading out of the bedroom. Mindy has just barely begun to drift back to sleep when she feels the mattress compress under Danny's weight. 

"It was nothing." He mutters sleepily. 

"Are you sure?" She doesn't want the baby to wake up again if she can help it, since she will be hungry, much like her mother. "Did you check her diaper?"

"Yes, I checked her diaper," Danny retorts. "I've been a dad for two whole weeks, I think I know what to do."

Mindy smiles and turns to snuggle him, the words "Yeah, you're the dad," slipping from her lips as she reaches over and finds him laying on his back, their daughter asleep against his chest. "Danny!"

"What, she just wants to be with us." He presses his lips to the fine black hair on her scalp. "It's attachment parenting. I googled it." 

"You do realize if she wakes up she's going to try to nurse. Enjoy the chapped nipples, buddy."

He grins widely and leans over to kiss her. "That's all you, babe. There's only so much we can do to raise her without gender bias." 

Mindy grabs his face as she kisses him back. "God damn, you're sexy when you're becoming enlightened. I'm so proud of you."

"Don't get too excited, you've still got a month or so before you can get a piece of this." 

She guffaws a little too loudly, causing the infant to startle and cry. Danny rocks her for a minute before she starts rooting, so he hands her to Mindy, who sighs with a smile and pops out a breast. "I'm just glad she doesn't have teeth yet. This baby will not be breast feeding at age six, mark my words!"

"You'll be feeding baby number two by then. Or three, or whatever..." Mindy pushes him away as he starts kissing her neck. 

"Well, like you said, we don't get to work on that for at least a month, so settle down, lover." She relaxes back into the pillows and watches her sleepy daughter nurse for a moment before looking back at Danny. "I love you so much for this," She tells him. 

"I love you for everything..." He murmurs as he falls back to sleep.


End file.
